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“But we have brought in players who can become the new heroes, because that is what happens in football.

“Players can’t be here forever, they eventually move on or retire, and in this case they have moved on so we have got new players.”

There was heartbreak for the Addicks on Saturday when they just failed to hold on to Marvin Sordell’s early opener as Wigan struck twice in the final two minutes through Marc-Antoine Fortune and Jordi Gomez.

Powell admitted the 2-1 defeat was tough to take but was impressed by the new players, as well as Charlton academy graduate Diego Poyet.

“Astrit, Nego and Reza all showed their qualities today, as did Poyet,” the manager said.

“We played a side that was put together at late notice but we worked on our tactics and they were going well enough.

“Even though Wigan had the possession we still had our chances, and Reza has an outstanding shot which hit the bar.

“I can’t really fault any of the players at all because we’re playing an ex-Premier League side who have got some real Premier League quality.

“In comparison we had a number of academy graduates and a number of new players that have never played in this league so I thought we acquitted ourselves really well – but it has to be to the end.”